Orrington Boy Hoping to be a Huggable Hero

An eight year old boy from Orrington is up for a national award.Brayden Mott is one of 80 semi-finalists for this year’s Build-a-Bear Workshop Huggable Heroes.Joy Hollowell shows us why this second grader is already a hero to the folks at Toys for Tots.====”Two years ago, he came in my place and he’s dressed up like Santa Claus,” says Skip Young with the Greater Bangor Area Toys for Tots program. “And he came bee bopping in like he owned the place. And I said, ‘Well, how are you?’ And he says, ‘I’m fine. My name is Braydon Mott, I brought you some toys.'”That year, Mott donated 322 toys to Toys for Tots, impressing Young and the rest of his group. But this young man had even loftier goals for 2012.”This year I’m trying to get 2,012,” said Mott back in December.He did…and then some.”I collected 2,630 toys, which really broke the record. When I say broke, I mean (cracks a pretend board in half with his hands) broke it in half,” explains Mott.The second grader came up with the idea after watching a 60 Minutes program on homeless people.”And I talked to my mom about it and she said- how about we help kids?” says Mott.”A lot of people had been following the story on him because all of a sudden, toys started coming in,” says Young. “I think he kind of lit a fire under everybody.””I got checks from Canada, Ireland and other places in the United States,” says Mott.Mott is pretty proud of his accomplishments, pointing out that 2,630 toys is “more than the First Lady collected.”No surprise, Mott wants to top his record again.”I thought it would be good to try and get 3,000 this year,” says Mott with a smile.And yes, he’s already started collecting.”If he keeps this up, he’ll be ready to take over Toys for Tots himself,” says Young with a chuckle.+++ More than 1,000 people were nominated for the Build-A-Bear Huggable Heroes award.Mott finds out next month if he’s among the 30 finalists.In June, the 10 Huggable Heroes will be announced.Each winner will receive a prize worth $10,000 including a $6,400 educational scholarship, a $2,500 donation to the 501(c)(3) charity of their choice, and a $1,100 Jefferson Awards GLOBECHANGERS mentoring scholarship. In addition, each Huggable Hero goes to St. Louis, Missouri, home of the Build-A-Bear Workshop World Bearquarters.